Nikita‘s titular butt-kicker has come to realize that her nemesis Amanda is targeting not her, but her loved ones – and when the show returns on Friday, Jan. 18 (The CW, 8/7c), the former Division head will waste no time hitting Nikita where it hurts most.

Back at Comic-Con 2012, executive producer Craig Silverstein teased that “something’s going to happen” to Nikita’s fiancé. Now, the EP reveals that the troubling event is right around the corner – in what was supposed to be the show’s December cliffhanger.

Everything goes haywire “right away, in Episode 7 — which would have been the winter finale,” he previews. (The hour was shifted to January “due to some scheduling changes.”)

Michael’s fate “comes as a consequence of everything that’s been happening so far,” says Silverstein. “So, if you ask what has been happening, that’s really been Amanda. It comes up as a consequence of that and of [their] going after her. It’s a really interesting problem.”

And it’s a complication, he confirms, that will “for sure” alter Michael and Nikita’s dynamic.

But if you think you know where Mikita’s romantic road is headed, the EP cautions that the storyline may take some curves that viewers aren’t expecting. “I think people are going to [think we’re] going this way or that way, and it’ll be fun to see what people think is going to happen versus what actually happens.”

Whatever Amanda has in store for the lovebirds, it will prove that she is far more villainous than her predecessor. In her quest to impart some lessons to Nikita, “it gets pretty intense,” teases Silverstein. “It definitely goes to some places that I think Percy would never even go… She really becomes more and more dangerous as it goes on.” (With reporting by Meg Masters)